L'Italo-Americano

PAGE��� 22 L'Italo-Americano Do You Believe in Santa Claus? Part two SALVATORE���DI���VITA In the first half of this two-part discussion, we left off with the question, ���How did St. Nicholas become Santa Claus?��� I must answer by first explaining that the custom of gift-giving, especially to children during the Christmas Season, is believed to be associated with the biblical narration of the magi: the three wise men who paid homage to the infant Jesus, bearing gifts of gold, frankincense and Myrrh (Matthew 2:112). When it came to children and gift-giving, the kindness and generosity of St. Nicholas, whose feast day happens to be close to Christmas, became known world-wide and somehow related to the Christmas Holiday. So, how did St. Nicholas become Santa Claus? Many nations around the world adopted St. Nicholas as its own giftgiver. Consequently, he began to take on a different personality and a different name consistent with the customs of that nation. For the most part, what emerged was a person who delivered presents to children at Christmas time, a person who mysteriously came with gifts and left them without being seen. In the United Kingdom, the mythical gift-giver became known as Father Christmas, the French called him P��re N��el and in Germany he was Christ Kind. In the United States, we have the Dutch to thank for the name of Santa Claus that we have come to know. Dutch settlers during the early days of America brought with them stories of St. Nicholas calling him Kris Kringle then Sinterklaas which eventually came to be pronounced as Santa Claus. In Spain and almost all of Hispanic South America he is Pap�� Noel or Padre Noel. Brazilians call him Papai Noelwhile the Portuguese refer to him as Pai Cr��ciun. In Turkey he is Noel Baba and in Italy he is known as Babbo Natale. Why was this mysterious gift giver depicted as a kindly plump old man with a white beard and a red suit? For an answer to this question, we must reach back to the year 1862, when Thomas Nast���s illustration of ���Saint Nick��� graced the cover of Harper���s Weekly Magazine. It was an instant hit. But besides the depiction of Santa Claus on Natal. Armenians called him Kaghand Papik and in India his name became Father Christmas. Romanians call him Mo�� the cover, it also contained a centerfold dedicated to the sacrifices which the Union Soldiers were making during the early THURS DAY, ��� DECEMBER��� 20, ��� 2012 days of the Civil War. Many young men were experiencing their first Christmas away from their families. So, it is not surprising that this issue of Harper���s Weekly became a collector���s item. Nast illustrated Santa as a kindly symbol of Christmas-giving: It was an image of his childhood memories and his native traditional German understanding of a kindly plump old man with a white beard and a red suit. It was Thomas Nast���s conception of the fourth century bishop known as St. Nicholas. As time went on, the shepherd���s crosier, or pastoral staff which he carried as a symbol of his authority as bishop was replaced with a large candy cane. By the 1890s, the first Santa Clauses were beginning to make appearances in department stores all over New York City. Eventually, Santa Claus became even more popular, making his appearance at office parties, neighborhoods, private homes and wherever Christmas was being celebrated. The job of being Santa Clause was reserved for those who didn���t miss too many meals and were able to fill the suit with some semblance of authenticity. Others, with less of a paunch, resorted to stuffing the costume with pillows but in almost all cases the white beard was phony. We must remember that the Christmas holiday celebrates the birth of Christ, not St. Nicholas. St. Nicholas or San Nicola is the patron of the city of Bari, Italy, where it is believed he is buried in the Basilica of Saint Nicholas or La Basilica di San Nicola. The Basilica was founded in 1087 and is an important pilgrimage destination both for Roman Catholics and Orthodox Christians from Eastern Europe. Through the many years, the names Saint Nicholas and Santa Claus have become synonymous. Either name will conjure up the same image and spirit of compassion and generosity. To answer the question of where he can be found, I recommend that anyone looking for Santa Claus, go the nearest mirror. Santa Claus is inside that person looking back at you. The spirit of Santa Claus has been known to take up residency in many of us, often right around Christmas time. In the more fortunate among us, however, it resides all year long. So a word of caution: it has been known to be contagious. My granddaughter is all grown up now and doesn���t talk about Santa Claus anymore, but if she were to ask me today if I believe in Santa Claus, I would again answer, ���Yes, of course I do.��� This time I would be telling the truth, because my concept of Santa Claus is the belief in the spirit of Christmas which resides in one���s benevolence towards others and in the spirit of one who is resting peacefully in Bari, Italy. will have a little something, but no one will have anything special. This apercu is similar to a view expressed by Margaret Panormas. It is an imposingly magnificent residence, dignified and aging. I hesitated for a moment as I The Leopard and Giuseppe Lampedusa FRANK���LA���ROSA The ���Leopard���, one of the greatest novels of the twentieth century, was written by a Sicilian aristocrat who was extremely erudite, pensive, impulsive, and sensitive. One critic says that his words from his novel can be memorized as poetry. Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa (1896-1952), the 11th Prince of Lampedusa, was descended on his father���s side from one of the most powerfully important families of Sicily, the Dukes of Palma, and on his mother���s side from Beatrice Tasca di Cuto. He was highly educated in literature, and he spoke and read several languages, actually giving evening seminars at his palazzo on English writers, in English. Lampedusa had an intense literary relationship with his poet cousin Lucio Piccolo with whom he often spent happy holidays discussing the arts and literature. Lampedusa married Alexandra (Licy) Wolff von Stomersee, a Baltic-German noblewoman of Lativia. She was a dedicated exponent of Freudian psychoanalysis. In fact, Licy was one of the first woman psychoanalysts in Italy. The couple lived all their lives in Palermo with their beloved dogs. They hardly ever traveled without them. What at first appears as a sedate, retiring life of the Prince was scarcely that. Lampedusa���s family palace was destroyed during WWII, as he said, by an Amercian bomb made in Pittsburgh! It was in response to this loss that Prince Lampedusa embarked upon writing The Leopard, Il Gattopardo, in 1954 as a way of self healing and retrieval. No one knows for sure what ���gattopardo��� means; yes, leop- ard, but probably a native Italian, wild specie that was hunted to extinction���an ironically fitting symbol for the Prince himself and the main character of the novel. Don Fabrizio Corbera enters his garden at the beginning of the novel, a lovely and disquiet- ing image of his demise and that of what is now happening to Sicily during the Risorgimento, the Unification. The garden is, perhaps, obscenely rich with the scents of flowers, ���The roses . . . he had himself brought from Paris had degenerated ; . . .enfeebled by the strong if languid pull of Sicilian earth, burnt by apocalyptic Julys.��� And, recently a dead national sharpshooter had been found under a lemon tree as a result of his ���certain sweetish odours��� as he lay dead and decomposing. The Leopards���s garden is the essential state of his world; opulent, aristocratic, cultured, and rapidly disintegrating. The Sicilians do not want their world to change again. Thus Tancredi says to his uncle the Prince, ���If we want things to stay as they are, things will have to change.��� For countless generations invasive outsiders have sought to bring Sicilians an ���improved��� world only to the detriment and resentment of the Sicilians themselves. Through Don Fabrizio���s words, Lampedusa expresses the most acerbic, sarcastic words of derision that I have ever read. He says that the aristocrats were once leopards and lions; after the Risorgimento some of us might still be leopards, but most will be ���sciacalle e pecore, continueremo a crede ci il sale della terra.��� All will be leveled; everybody Giuseppe Tommasi di Lampedusa Mitchell in Gone With the Wind. The best biography of Lampedusa is that of David Gilmour who took the trouble to explore the ruins of the old, bombed out palazzo late at night, illegally I might add. And, do not forget Visconti���s ���Il Gattopardo��� starring Burt Lancaster and Claudia Cardinale. Although excellent, I would like to see a new production of it. We made our journey-pilgrimage to 28 Via Butera in Palermo, to The Prince���s present day palazzo. It is ensconced in the historically deep center of old Palermo, right next to the Tyherrenian Sea and the Cala, the ancient Phoenican seaport, respectfully knocked the heavy bronze ring affixed to the tall, polished wooden doors---a kindly keeper answered. He was so very well spoken and told us that if we telephoned Gioacchino, he would gladly show us the interior of the palace. Che bella cortesia! Gioacchino is the Prince���s adopted son and a talented, respected leader of the artistic and music world in Italy. 28 Via Butera and the environs of the palazzo are being restored into elegant vacation apartments and such. But the palazzo itself, Porta Felice, and the ancient Cala still resonate the power of Prince���s world. The old feelings are yet there.

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